Our New Music Playlist features the best new releases from local bands, plus a few from touring bands playing the Calder Valley in the near future.
The Hazy Janes – When You Pull That Face
The Halifax duo are all set to unleash their debut album on the world in November and this is your first official taste of it. When You Pull That Face boasts the bullish brand of guttural bluesy rock for which they’ve become renowned, complete with rasping, feverish harmonica that builds and carries you triumphantly to the finish line.
The slide guitar brings the whole piece together and gives it a nonchalant, vaguely-country feel. At 2’49”, it’s snappy, leaving you loitering for more. But the chorus hooks are given plenty of space to breathe, planting an indelible mark on your subconscious. It’s both immediate and playful. A wisely-chosen album teaser.
Wax Tree Cast – Straightjacket
The pink and poised rockabilly-indie duo from Halifax/Manchester return with a fresh slab of singalong pop goodness. Oolagh’s lush vocals glide across Blair’s rattling Cribs-like guitars in a fuzzed-up universe of indie-glam. If you’re new to WTC, this is a fine place to start. Decadent and daring, the track instantly epitomises their most alluring attributes.
Eve Joné – The Water And The Trees (live)
The Water And The Trees (live) is a 10-track album recorded in one day in a North Yorkshire studio. Each song is pretty much a single take with minimal overdubs, presented as Eve says “with all errors included free!” In truth, you’ll spot very few.
Just turned 18, Eve Joné from Huddersfield, shows a hankering for warm, melodic folk-led indie guitar in the vein of Gregory Alan Isakov. But the real shining light here is her voice, evoking the 70s revival era of singers like Joan Baez and Shelagh McDonald, as well as your more contemporary luminaries of the genre – names such as Bedouine, Aldous Harding and the Boygenius trio. Eve herself describes the collection as “heartfelt and lyrically rich and not always comfortable – as that’s how life is.”
We have a full feature on Eve coming very soon.
Lines of Silence – The Long Way Home
While this is the third Lines of Silence album, it feels like a debut of sorts with founding member David Little having expanded his solo project to include the electronic wizardry of Manchester’s Dave Clarkson.
Previous LOS works have settled on a broad base of hypnotically drifting ambient soundscapes and there’s plenty of of that here too, not least in the 20-minute-plus epic that is Withens Clough. But there’s also a hefty salvo of blood-thumping, pedal-crunching krautrock, particularly across the album’s opening two tracks.
As the dynamics shift down, the band narrative holds firm – Lines Of Silence maintain a distinct vision across a spectrum of tempos. From motorik belters to moonlit transcendence, The Long Way Home is a cohesive, colourful odyssey.
The Orielles
Ok, ok. We may have led you here somewhat under false pretences. There’s no official new release to devour just yet. But high excitement is emanating from The Orielles camp with news that they’ve laid down a good proportion of the next album. What’s more, they’ve been announced as headliners for the Yours To Keep festival at The Parish in Huddersfield on Saturday 9th November, where we can reasonably expect to hear the first fruits of their labours.
In the mean time you can sink your teeth into a couple of recent performances for Noods Radio and Low Four Studio.
Callis – Summer Bones
Following the psych wooziness of debut Dramaskin and their Cure-ish second single Dream Sequence, the latest offering from Todmorden trio Callis is a bold art-rock mosaic of crisply-cut rhythms and prog-dappled guitar. Dean Molyneux on vocals creates a hypnotic, soothing call to the wild and wounded, with lyrics drawing on the classic tale of Romeo and Juliet. In all, Summer Bones has a rawness reminiscent of the 80s post-punk / alt-rock scene, and yet a soaring ambition that is more akin to the dark-indie of Editors or White Lies.
Keep an eye out for our feature on the band, coming later this month.
Henry Parker and David Ian Roberts – Chasing Light
Henry Parker, a leading light in the thriving West Yorkshire folk scene, has teamed up with fellow landscape-loving troubadour David Ian Roberts. Chasing Light is a pre-cursor to the nu-folk duo’s forthcoming album of the same name. It is, as you’d expect, a thing of delicate, meandering charm, full of cascading Nick Drake noodlings and Bert Jansch-style incision.
Jumble Hole Clough – They’ve Built An Ark In Arkham
A delightful discovery. The new album by prolific local music-maker Jumble Hole Clough (aka Colin Robinson) is a giddy, ramshackle collection of funky DIY-ness, with song titles to rival Zappa for extravagance.
For fans of: Beefheart, Talking Heads, Half Man Half Biscuit, Tom Waits and Stump. A name-your-price download. Give it a well-deserved whirl.
The Caymans – If You Don’t Mind?
The Halifax band’s latest single is a bejewelled beacon of harmonious indie-pop. If You Don’t Mind? recalls the the surf-vibe of modern US college bands Peach Pit / The Walters and the crafted charm of 80s-90s Scottish chart-hoppers Deacon Blue / Del Amitri. Take flight.
New Music Fix Playlist
The best recent releases – featuring stuff from local artists in the main, plus a few from touring bands due to play one of our five grassroots venues in the near future.
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